Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Interpreting the writings purely by their titles one could interpret these articles to be contrary. However, both articles discuss a retooling and a rethinking of our design and environments simply stating that the speed of things has changed. “Another is the futurists who tried to portray the inner life of things, both animate and inanimate, and to show how it connected to its surroundings” (Change Made Visible, 164). Both articles site futurists and discuss the environment in relation to change, time, and speed. “A new viewpoint in the visual arts is a natural consequence of this age of speed which has to consider the moving eye” (Space-Time Problems, 246). While both articles discuss juxtaposition, layering, montage, inversion, contrast, transparency and light, Change Made Visible optimistically narrates opportunity for intervention within our environments, while Space-Time Problems portrays and architectural ignorance to the changing nature of our lives. Change Made Visible was part narrative fiction and part advocacy for passive environmental stimuli.

Speed

Did humans speed things up?

Did nature have trouble relating to nature before we sped it up?

Did the invention and implementation of the internet, automobiles, trains, and planes ultimately manifest our sped up lives and cities?

Is there a problem with the way we relate to our environments?

Should environment or city stimuli be designed passively or actively?

While Change Made Visible gives suggestions on ways to design such as sequence design as a layering of historical artifacts what other ways might we design juxtaposition, contrast, and layering into an environment?

Is awareness of environments complexities one the most critical departure points for the design of environments? This is to say do we need to understand that a very old baroque building looks interesting when juxtaposed against a modern minimalist buildings made of contrasting materials or is that inherent?